


Hey, Look At Us Now

by Leonawriter



Series: FF7 minifics [3]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen, Genesis has a massive ego and an abysmal self image, Plants, Recovery comes in many forms, somehow these both exist at once, wow look they can actually laugh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 08:50:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13632891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: Genesis always used to hate how Angeal would put plants in his room, because it'd mean bugs would get into his. Come the time when Genesis is now living in Edge, he dares them to fly further in than the kitchen window.





	Hey, Look At Us Now

**Author's Note:**

> This can take place within the Sombre Morrow timeline, but said fic is not necessary in order to understand this story, which can be read on its own.

The apartment Genesis managed to find that was both reasonable and within his now far more modest means, was more along the lines of the First Class rooms he'd been given while he'd worked at Shinra, although more spacious - and private.

It took a while to get used to the fact that the space was  _his_. He'd spent so long looking over his shoulder in the expectation that nowhere he went was he safe. And even up until he'd got this place, his space hadn't been his own; Tifa and Cloud had let him stay in Seventh Heaven for a while, but that hadn't just been out of the kindness of their hearts but rather also the fact that until they'd known that they could trust him, they wanted him where they could see him. Which he could respect.

Sleep took longer to even out. At least at Seventh Heaven, there had been other people in the rooms next to his. His apartment, though he found it a mercy and relief at times, was also echoingly empty.

The shelves soon became full of books - several editions of LOVELESS, including one that looked suspiciously like one of the rarer editions he had owned prior to... well, everything.

He invested in a decorative display case for the materia he didn't need to use. An empty wardrobe that Tifa had passed on to him from an unknown source, which he'd later found out was made of Banoran applewood, was slowly filled with clothes that didn't replace his old SOLDIER uniform, but gave him more... options again.

The living room window is one of the reasons the apartment was cheap, compared even to the ones on the other side of the building. It looked out on Midgar - the  _ruins_ of Midgar - and the view was just as beautiful as it was terrible. Every so often, one could see, if they wanted, the movements of monsters hunting in the remains of the city.

What he had once thought of as  _his_ city, before he had realised that he had wanted nothing to do with Shinra, and Midgar  _was_ Shinra.

He tended to keep _that_ sill clear, just in case of emergencies, even though so far there had been none that had required  _that_ kind of hasty exit. The kitchen window, however, was small and hardly had any view worth a mention at all. Which was how, when someone had put something in a pot into his hands as thanks for something even a Third Class could have done, it had ended up there.

And somehow, it had only been the first.

"I didn't know you kept plants," Cloud says one day, leaning against the doorway. 

"I don't," Genesis said testily, pouring tap water into one of the pots with a used, chipped mug that Tifa had passed on to him, which had  _So You Want To Be In SOLDIER_ written on it in bold letters around the Shinra logo. A glance over at Cloud proved that he was amused, and it wasn't as though he could  _blame_ him. If Genesis had seen seen himself doing this even several months ago,  _he_ would have laughed at himself. "They sit there, and I attempt not to kill them, or throw them out when I find yet another bug in my room."

"Why- why keep them, then?"

And there it was. That was  _definitely_ laughter. Perhaps he should have invited all of AVALANCHE over for the spectacle if watching him water plants he clearly hated was one way to get Cloud Strife to laugh. He suspected no one would believe him if he told them.

"It's something Angeal used to do," he admitted, putting the mug down into the sink, and glaring at an insect, _daring_ it to go further than the leaf it had landed on. "He was also a good cook, and decent at using his fists as much as swords in a fight. He and Tifa probably would have gotten along fairly well."

"Angeal... that's the one who trained Zack, right?" Genesis nodded. "What happened to him, anyway? I don't remember."

The bug flew off, thankfully away and not inside. Much like Genesis wished he could, although that would merely put off the discussion for later. And alert Cloud to the fact that this was something important. Neither of which he liked the sound of.

"I did," he said bluntly at last. "Or at least, that's essentially what happened after you get past the finer details." He turned back to face Cloud again fully, agitated enough by this train of thought and turn in conversation to  _need_ to look the man in the eye, the man who had inherited Angeal's will from Zack, who even now wore a sword that, when combined, took on a form similar to that of a Buster Sword, and for a moment Genesis almost thought he could see his old friend looking back. Just a moment. "He was a  _good man._ " He breathed, and looked away again, unable to take the way that Cloud was just accepting it, meeting his gaze,  _forcing_ him to accept that this was what he had done, the person he had become. "A better man that I've ever been," he added, just a little bitterly. 

Not so much because he was bitter at Angeal - because he was, because it  _had_ been Angeal who had decided to die, it had been  _Angeal's choice_ to leave him like that, to leave all of them, when it was  _Genesis_ who was degrading and dying, not him - but because if Genesis been just a bit better, perhaps he wouldn't have pushed Angeal away, Angeal wouldn't have died.

"I think some of those are herbs," Cloud was saying now, breaking Genesis free of his resentments. "That's definitely strawberries, though."

This time, it was Genesis' turn to raise an eyebrow. 

"I didn't know you knew that much about plants either."

Cloud shrugged. "I don't, really... Tifa made sure I learned when we started up the bar again. Said I had to know if I was going to be fetching things for it. Before that, all the greens I really knew about were for chocobos."

Genesis snorted, and then started laughing. 

**Author's Note:**

> So now we're here and here is fine  
> So far away from there and there is time, time, time  
> To plant new seeds and watch them grow  
> So there'll be flowers in the window when we go  
> Wow, look at us now, flowers in the window, it's such a lovely day  
> And I'm glad you feel the same  
> -Travis


End file.
